The National Board of Review selects "Her" as best picture; is Jennifer Lawrence the new Anne Hathaway?; Melissa Anderson considers Barbara Stanwyck; how to defend your high school musical; Afghanistan returns to the movies.

Marie writes: Much beloved and a never ending source of
amusement, Simon's Cat is a popular animated cartoon series by the
British animator Simon Tofield featuring a hungry house cat who
uses increasingly heavy-handed tactics to get its owner to feed it. Hand-drawn using an A4-size Wacom Intuos 3 pen and tablet,
Simon has revealed that his four cats - called Teddy, Hugh, Jess and
Maisie - provide inspiration for the series, with Hugh being the primary
inspiration. And there's now a new short titled "Suitcase". To view
the complete collection to date, visit Simon's Cat at YouTube.

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